State Auditor Dave Yost released an audit today looking at Value Learning and Teaching (VLT) Academy’s 2010-2011 school year, and the findings are not pretty. The charter school, which is located in downtown Cincinnati, was found to be potentially overpaying in multiple instances — including potential conflicts of interest.   

City officials on Aug. 21 finished and released the final draft for Plan Cincinnati, the city’s first master plan since 1980. The 228-page plan touts a renewed emphasis on a societal movement from neighborhoods back to the urban core of cities.    

Like any political convention, the Republican National Convention was filled with little substance and mostly vague platitudes. But one piece of policy was made very clear in the Republican Party’s political platform, which was officially unveiled at the convention: The war on women is still marching along.  

As surely as the sun revolves around Earth, the gaffe that keeps giving has its origins in Cincinnati. I’m talking about Republican Todd Akin, the Missouri anti-abortion senatorial candidate who stupidly asserted that some rapes are “legitimate.”    

Robert Geathers is entering his ninth year with the Bengals and is now the most tenured member of the team. He was drafted in the same class as Chris Perry, Keiwan Ratliff and Madieu Williams. He’s been a member of all three of Marvin Lewis’ playoff teams, seen the high times and low, but has rarely been in the spotlight. That’s pretty much how he likes it.   

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sept. 1 laid out five steps that he said would have America “roaring back” during a campaign stop at Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, his first campaign stop since formally accepting the Republican nomination.  

In a statement on Aug. 22, Secretary of State Jon Husted said of early voting, “The rules are set and are not going to change.” Husted made the comment in an attempt to end discussion over in-person early voting hours. Unfortunately for Husted, a federal judge disagrees.   

When the stimulus package passed in 2009, the federal government sent out funds that worked to prevent homelessness. Local organization Strategies to End Homelessness used some of this funding to help thousands of at-risk people and those who are already homeless. But that funding will soon come to an end because the stimulus package was only meant to be a temporary jolt to deal with the Great Recession.
  

The Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners is poised to approve spending almost $300,000 on an insurance policy to help cover the stadium bonds.   

“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine,” said Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party and close adviser to Gov. John Kasich.
  

The Historic Conservation Board knew it was in for a long afternoon when Western & Southern showed up to Monday’s hearing with an army of suits to argue against a recommended zoning permit for the Anna Louise Inn.
  

For a few months the Pirates were a nice, uplifting story, but deep down everyone knew the Cardinals were the real threat, the real enemy of the Reds.  

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Aug. 23 that grant money will go to a local organization to help homeless youth. Some of the money, which is taken from the State Victims Assistance Act, will go to Cincinnati-based Lighthouse Youth Services (LYS) to help victims of domestic violence, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, between the ages of 18 and 24.  

Some Democratic lawmakers want answers from Republican Gov. John Kasich. A group of Democratic state representatives has put forth a bill that would require Kasich — and every governor after him — to come before the Ohio House of Representatives 10 times per year for 45-minute question and answer sessions where the governor would have to take at least five questions from each side of the aisle.   

University of Cincinnati President Greg Williams abruptly stepped down Aug. 21. According to reports, Williams walked into a UC Board of Trustees meeting, announced he was resigning effective immediately and left.